


Then Take Mine

by ivoryandhorn



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-24
Updated: 2010-05-24
Packaged: 2018-07-28 23:44:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7661815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ivoryandhorn/pseuds/ivoryandhorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And like a wild beast, the future was freed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Then Take Mine

**Author's Note:**

> The summary and title are quoted from 's _Eight Kinds of Sight_ , specifically the first section, though stylistically the fics are pretty different (and this one isn't nearly so good). But that was the Izuna hanging out in the back of my head while I wrote this fic.
> 
> (Now extremely jossed. Thanks Kishimoto!)

It was rapidly becoming clear to Izuna that the healer-nin had given up on Madara. It was understandable, perhaps; they were few and far between, and they were used to more ordinary ailments—the business of coaxing broken bones and gouged flesh back into fullness. No one was equipped to deal with _this_ : the body-shaking coughs, the wasting fatigue, the gradually deteriorating eyesight. They tried anyway, because this was _Madara_ , but the hopeful tone that had marked their earlier conferences had been long been lost, and now their words were less about treatments and more about making Madara comfortable during his last days.

Izuna wanted to rage at them for giving up on Madara so easily, for being so quick to abandon Madara when it was Madara who'd led the clan as far as they'd come, but he was bone-tired from fending off a raid earlier in the day and hadn't the strength or—if he was being truthful—the conviction. So he kept his silence instead, feeling the words he was too tired to say pool in his chest, as if they could burst past his teeth from sheer pressure.

Once the meeting had been adjourned—the healer-nin too shamefaced to face him directly, shuffling out of the room like mourners from a funeral, which was an apt enough phrase that it made his skin crawl—he caught the most experienced healer that he thought would listen to him and laid out the final, last resort he had devised. It would kill one or both of them, but Izuna still hadn't told anyone about the way his eyesight blurred after each raid—longer and longer each time—or the struggle it was some days, forcing himself to eat. He knew in his bones that what was even now worming its way into him was the same thing that had caused his brilliant, courageous brother to shrivel into a caricature of himself, and one-or-both was a risk he was willing to take, especially if he ended up being the one. They spoke briefly and she left, leaving Izuna to feel his way back to the room he now shared with his brother, hoping fervently that his eyesight would clear up before he reached it. It did not.

Madara was awake when he arrived, gazing sightlessly upwards—eyes filmed over, color faded like cloth left out too long in the sun. And maybe those were the right words for it, for the way they'd sought power neck-and-neck only to find that once internalized it was determined to burn its way back out again—though, as always, Madara was one step ahead. Izuna took his time scraping dinner together for the two of them, wary of making mistakes for fear that the sound would tip Madara off.

"Dinner, nii-san," he said.

"Save it for yourself," Madara said, rolling over and leaving Izuna with the ridge of his shoulder to speak to. "Stop wasting food on me."

"You need to keep your strength up, nii-san," Izuna said. It was an old argument, they had followed dozens of times by now, but he followed the thread of it regardless. "But, you're right. Toshiro-san's wife could probably use the extra food, with the baby on the way." He moved away back towards the pot, but Madara stopped him by rolling back over.

 _"You_ should eat, Izuna," he said. "You need it more than I do."

"If you can go without, then so can I, nii-san," Izuna said stubbornly. Metal scraped as he lifted the pot off its hook.

"Fine," Madara said shortly. _"Fine._ If you want to waste that food on someone who's dying, fine. Go ahead."

Izuna came back over and helped Madara sit up, conscious of how painfully thin his brother felt beneath his hands. "It's not a waste, nii-san," he said, holding the bowl up to Madara's mouth, and felt something unknot in his chest as Madara took the first sip.

*

*

*

Upon waking, one thing became overwhelmingly obvious to Madara: that he had died. There couldn't possibly be any other explanation for why he could see again, and for a moment he basked in the simple joy of it, tracing the smoke-stained beams that criss-crossed overhead with his eyes. It must have been poison, to have worked so fast, but he couldn't make himself feel any bitterness towards Izuna for making the choice he had. Better to die quick and clean, rather than sip life to dregs and live out his days as a burden to the clan. 

He was lying flush against the wall, as he had when he had died, but strangely enough there was now another body lying next to his, tucked under the same blankets. He moved them aside curiously, and felt his heart drop out of his chest—he would have recognized that body anywhere, even from behind, even with bandages chopping the spikes of his hair into an even greater mess than usual.

"Izuna?" he said. His brother stirred at his voice, rolling onto his back, and now Madara could see that the bandages were wrapped tight around and above and below his eyes. "If you killed yourself too, I swear—"

His brother licked his lips and coughed out a little laugh. "This isn't the afterlife, nii-san."

"Then why can I see?" he demanded, and as soon as he asked, he knew. He knew.

Izuna's hand reached upwards, hovering helplessly in as if unsure which direction reached it. Madara snatched it out of the air, holding it tight in his own. "Can you—I'd like some water, nii-san, if you can—"

"Wait here," he said, scrambling out of bed. He stoked the fire in its pit, and found that someone had left a full kettle hanging over its embers. It didn't take long for the water to heat, and he poured a bowlful to take back to Izuna, who was pushing himself upright with careful movements, feeling behind him for the wall. As Madara held the bowl up to his brother's lips, he was struck by a sense of terrible reversal—now Izuna was the blind one, now he was the one feeding him, now Madara was the one feeling helpless against an enemy he couldn’t beat out of existence.

When Izuna had finished drinking, Madara said, "Why did you do it?"

"Well, you needed them more than I do, nii-san," Izuna said, and Madara wanted to hit him. He must have sensed it—of course he sensed it—because he reached out towards Madara. His hands bumped into the sides of his arms, following them up to Madara's shoulders rather than the fists clenched in his lap. "Because you'll be able to use them better than I can, nii-san. Because the clan would follow you places they'd never follow me. You're their hero. I'm just your brother."

"You shouldn't have," Madara said, reaching out. He held Izuna's face in his two hands. It was awful, how much the bandages changed the shape of his face, like looking at someone else entirely. Empty sockets just inches from his thumbs, hollow, hollow, hollow— "You shouldn't have, you should have kept them—"

"It's not so bad," Izuna said. "I can still fight—" and they both knew it was a lie, because while Izuna could probably last longer than most, there was no way he'd be able to last for very long "—and I know the clan will hang together with you as head, nii-san. Longer than if I was head, anyway."

"I'll make it worth it," Madara promised. "I won't waste it." He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against the scratchy bandages. "Izuna, I'll—I'll find peace, I'll _make_ peace, I'll crush the Senju if I have to, I'll kill Hashirama, I'll—"

"You don't have to make it anything, nii-san," Izuna said, soft voice steady. "It already is."


End file.
